Every company has a strategy. Every company has data. But some ideas spread like wildfire, and just as good ideas die out quietly. Some leaders command the room, while others lose the room in the first 30 seconds. Some products develop a devoted following, while others, despite all the reasonable advantages, never catch on.
Adam Leipzig spent 40 years figuring out why.
He had to: it was his job. As a senior executive at Walt Disney Studios, he directed films such as: dead poets association and Honey, I made the kids shrink. As president of National Geographic Films, he march of penguins One of the most successful documentaries ever made. Over a career spanning the studio, streaming, and classroom, his projects have generated more than $2 billion in worldwide revenue, winning Academy Awards, BAFTAs, Emmy Awards, and Sundance Awards along the way.
He currently produces films and teaches at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Its students include MBA candidates, executives from global technology companies, and senior leaders tackling business's most complex communications challenges.
his new book, Fearless Persistence: Ten Laws of Creative Living, Creative Work, and Culturenomicsis built around the creative world and should definitely be on your list of graduation gifts for anyone graduating from school with a BFA this spring. But that argument applies squarely to C-suite executives.
Throughout the book, Leipzig reminds us that effort and skill are rarely the limiting factors in whether an idea succeeds. What determines traction is whether the work aligns with the systems and narratives that allow it to be communicated. In an era where old distribution models are declining and new ones are being formed in real time, that's not a creative question. It's a leadership issue.
I spoke with Leipzig about what CEOs and CFOs can learn from how movies are made, how the best companies are building fans instead of customers (like Apple), and why the world's most data-driven organizations and people are still making decisions based on pure emotion. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
You wrote this book for creative people such as writers, artists, and filmmakers. But I felt this was very applicable to businessmen as well. What is a crossover?
The distinction between business and creative is an artificial one. All the great business people I've ever met are very creative, and creative people who live sustainable lives are business people. That's why they live a sustainable life. Great businessmen lead very creative lives.
Every movie you make is essentially a startup. What can other businesspeople learn from the process?
When I work with a company, whether it's a start-up or a large company with a start-up division, the process is exactly the same as the one I've been through 40 times in film. The whole process of coming up with an idea, assembling the right team, pressure testing that idea, publishing a beta version and successively approximating the result, and then taking it to market.
The key element is what I call the 10 Laws of Culturenomics in the last third of the book. These apply to all businesses and creative endeavors that are successful and economically successful within their own ecosystems. I think it's actually very difficult to do all 10, but Apple did all 10. Taylor Swift has done all ten. And once we at least understand what they are, we can start building our work in those directions.
Talk about building a following. Businesspeople often think in terms of creating a product and supplying demand. However, demand for art is not built in advance. Apple didn't just find a customer, it created a fan.
Apple is such a poignant example. Because Apple created fans, not customers. Hosted by Steve Jobs [a product] And the next day everyone had to have it. ChatGPT saw similar immediate adoption. How quickly did 1 million people start using ChatGPT?
The way fans work starts with a very small group of people. The group is like the white-hot core of a nuclear reactor. Its immaculate core radiates enthusiasm, telling people, telling people, and telling people. If its center is very radioactive, it spreads very quickly.
It's not because they spent a billion dollars on marketing. Because people were telling people. The most powerful marketing has always been word of mouth, or person-to-person contact.
One of the ten laws is the fifth law, Inciting the Evangelist. The gospel always exists, but the gospel is not fact. It's something that people can actually communicate and share. The gospel always contains emotional truth. Others become able to recognize others who are part of their tribe and convert to their products and services. Sorry to use religious language, but this is the closest analogy I can think of to people believing in something so strongly that they want to spread the word.
How do you build your core, your first 1,000 people? What are companies doing wrong?
Just because someone knows about something doesn't mean they want it. Everyone knew about Disney's new Snow White movie. No one wanted to see it. It's about desire. It's about wanting something so much that you really have to have it. Especially now that it's so noisy. Desire penetrates.
How do you get to the first 10 people, and then 100 people, and then 1000 people? One way or another, you develop a deep, deep personal relationship with them. I mentor young entrepreneurs here at UC Launch in Berkeley. They do nothing but start a fire by rubbing two sticks together. And they had to find a way to find and bring together the first 10 people on the market side or the supply side. They just do it by hand.
But it's all about finding the first person who is really excited and has the ability to share. Next, you need to provide the language you want to share. People won't understand words intuitively. Part of it is finding them, and part of it is providing the mechanisms that actually enable sharing, like words and clicks. And it starts happening.
You often talk about how authentic storytelling is so important to this process. Why is this so difficult for so many businessmen?
I coach people to get out of their heads and into their hearts. It's about emotional grounding. We stand up, breathe, get into our bodies, and think deeply about who we want to talk to and what emotions that person needs to feel in order to share and spread the word.
Then they just practice and practice and practice until it's in their DNA. Because this is not an intellectual exercise. Sometimes people ask me, “Is there a book I can read about this?” No, I have to go. If you launch a $500 million initiative and have to attend board meetings, you'll practice it 100 times.
When I pitch a movie to a studio, I'm basically asking them to bet $350 million on a roulette wheel on opening weekend. I practice that pitch a hundred times. We only have two minutes. They might know within 30 seconds.
What's the secret to a great pitch?
Whether it's a 15-second YouTube ad or a 20-episode Netflix series, there's an unbreakable narrative structure. The hook, the challenge, the solution, the call to action.
The hook should be completely unique and surprising. Its sole purpose is to grab attention and stand out from the noise: the first five words that come out of your mouth. Next, set the problem and solution. There is always a solution, and there is always hope.
And there's also the likability factor. What you offer doesn't have to be the only thing people like. You have to be likable. Likeability in a business context has nothing to do with age, gender, ethnicity, or what you wear. It has to do with the brightness of your eyes, the clarity, the humility, the honor of being here to offer something wonderful that your heart is excited about.
Next, you need to call the question. Otherwise, at most you'll end up saying, “Let's bring this up at next month's meeting,” and that's not what you want.
Do you have any final thoughts for business people who are looking to develop a following rather than just selling a product?
Pay close attention to your market, or what I call your audience. Really understanding who they are, what they want, and what they need. How would they feel if they got it?. Because that emotion excites them and they will take what you offer and share it with others.
Too many businesspeople work for companies that proudly claim to be data-driven. But decisions aren't actually based on data. We first make a decision on an emotional level and then find data to justify it in a nanosecond.
Want an example? McLaren's price is $300,000. They have flashy colors, require special fuel, and always get scratched up in Los Angeles parking lots. There's no logical reason to own one. Still, you'll see plenty of McLarens on the road. Because someone said “I want it” and found a rational reason. Because it's a forward-looking car, the valet will park in front of me, and people know I'm important. These are all reasonable reasons, but buying a $300,000 car is not a rational decision. McLaren promises to sell on an emotional level.
That emotional truth is what makes people actually act. And learning how to work at the level of data rather than hiding behind it is the very heart of it.
